It seems that you are indeed required to have 3dsmax to use the product. I posted a request in th forums to add the ability to use gmax also. Hopefully they will implement it.

Free 3D modeling, animating, and more software that exports/imports the .3ds (3D Studio Max Format)

Blender(See scripts section of website) - www.blender3d.org
Blender is a full featured and powerful program. Big learning curve but worth it if your truly serious about learning 3D graphics.

Anim8or - www.anim8or.com
Great program, not as powerful or full featured as Blender but great if your new to 3D graphics.

Not Free but cheap 3D Software I recommend using. Imports and exports .3ds format also.

AC3D - www.ac3d.org
$60 for the personal version, tons of features and lots of support between other 3D programs. Group licencing is avalible. Great community also.

---

Originally posted by sleepyguyftl

It seems that you are indeed required to have 3dsmax to use the product. I posted a request in th forums to add the ability to use gmax also. Hopefully they will implement it.

---

3dsmax sells for around $3500.  Sorry if this dashes anyone else's hopes.  I had thought about making a Kanema-based game in a casual/hobby sense.  But this would seem to be for pretty serious commercial developers only. 

If I already had some good computer art/animation skills I'd invest in 3dsmax just so I could sell art to aspiring game developers using Kanema.  This whole concept has great potential.

---

Originally posted by angus858

Originally posted by sleepyguyftl
It seems that you are indeed required to have 3dsmax to use the product. I posted a request in th forums to add the ability to use gmax also. Hopefully they will implement it.

3dsmax sells for around $3500. Sorry if this dashes anyone else's hopes. I had thought about making a Kanema-based game in a casual/hobby sense. But this would seem to be for pretty serious commercial developers only.
If I already had some good computer art/animation skills I'd invest in 3dsmax just so I could sell art to aspiring game developers using Kanema. This whole concept has great potential.

---

See my post, just above yours!

People, please read all the posts, or atleast skim threw them.

---

Originally posted by Munka

---

Originally posted by angus858

Originally posted by sleepyguyftl
It seems that you are indeed required to have 3dsmax to use the product. I posted a request in th forums to add the ability to use gmax also. Hopefully they will implement it.

3dsmax sells for around $3500. Sorry if this dashes anyone else's hopes. I had thought about making a Kanema-based game in a casual/hobby sense. But this would seem to be for pretty serious commercial developers only.
If I already had some good computer art/animation skills I'd invest in 3dsmax just so I could sell art to aspiring game developers using Kanema. This whole concept has great potential.

---

See my post, just above yours!

People, please read all the posts, or atleast skim threw them.

---

Yours wasnt there when I began my post so chill out. 

In any case the person I was replying to suggested that 3dsmax was required, not just something in 3ds format.  But if this isn't the case then perhaps the other software you listed might be all that people need.  That would be very nice.

3dsmax is required because of the plugin exporter for Kaneva is built for it, if it'll work for gmax or not I'm not sure as I've not used gmax and I don't know if the plugin archetecture is the same. I myself being a Softimage|XSI user felt the blow immediately

Anyway "no upfront cost" is a more apt description because after reading the licensing agreement it most certainly is not free if you plan to release the game under any agreement over the Pilot License. Then again I guess that's leveraged with you spending less up front for development, it's still a big step in a good direction regardless. I just hope they release the source code to the plugin so we can get some exporters for other 3d content creation apps.

I am surprised mmocenter.com or Rapid Reality haven't been mentioned in this thread.

Rapid Realities ambitious team of 25 developers are pioneers trying to prove the power of the kaneva engine in there upcoming mmocenter.com. Promising to bring two fully working mmorpgs out by the end of 2005. Unbelievably ambitious!

See more about them in the recent news thread here at mmorpg.com
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/features/loadFeature/150/gameID/196

---

Originally posted by VikVektor

3dsmax is required because of the plugin exporter for Kaneva is built for it, if it'll work for gmax or not I'm not sure as I've not used gmax and I don't know if the plugin archetecture is the same. I myself being a Softimage|XSI user felt the blow immediately

---

I'd like to see them support .xsi and Maya, as those are the apps that I have. I don't use 3dsmax. And to the poster above who listed free apps that can create .3ds files, great, but .3ds is not the 3dsmax file format.
That's the older 3d Studio file format. Max uses .max files, which cannot be created with anything but 3dsmax.
So this is truly not MMO for everyone. Only for the select few who own 3dsmax. Let's see them come out with a plugin for either gmax or XSI Mod tool, or at least XSI foundation and Maya, then it will truly be for everyone. Requiring 3dsmax was really a dumb decision on their part.

---

Originally posted by sleepyguyftl
Did that, waiting for an answer. Also it seems to require 3ds max. The company that makes 3dsmax has a free product specifically for creating game content. Not sure if its a decent replacement but here is the link:
http://www4.discreet.com/gmax/

---

Program works well. Only problem is that I can't get the Kaneva plugin to work correctly with gmax which basically means that I can't export anything I create into Kaneva. Hopefully they'll fix that up soon enough.

I created a basic test world, imported some objects, and generally messed around with settings and I have to say, its impressive. Once they implement the nice particle systems, bump mapping, and their beautiful shading possibilities, it will be rather nice.

Now if I could only get the textures to import to Kaneva correctly

This engine is in no way for indie developers.  It requires you to use 3d studio max

$3,495 - 3d studio max

Commercial license - $50,000

read the agreements

Commercial License
• Terms of Use. Unlimited user license. The Kaneva Software may only be used as a component of games developed by you.
• Distribution. All listing of your games based on the Kaneva Software will be through Kaneva.com. As part of the License and Monthly User Fees specified below, Kaneva will host games using Kaneva Software on servers controlled by Kaneva. Games will be listed on and linked from Kaneva.com. You may distribute the Kaneva Game Engine only to end users through Kaneva.com as part of online enabled games developed, owned or licensed by you.
• License Fee. A one time license fee of $50,000 per game, payable as set forth below.
• Monthly User Fees. In addition to the one time license fee, Monthly User Fees per game developed using the Kaneva Software shall be the greater of the following:

• $200 per month per game.
  
• $2 per concurrent user per game, based on the highest number of concurrent users using the Kaneva Software for your game or games at any moment during the month.
  
• 50% of net fees generated by each game based on the Kaneva Software. Net fees means gross revenues less hosting and operating expenses for the applicable games, including but not limited to a pro rata share of server space and internet connectivity. Hosting and operating expenses are estimated to be $1 per month per subscriber, but may be more or les depending on actual expenses incurred. You are solely responsible for setting the amount of monthly user fees for subscribers to your games. Until the license fee is paid in full, you will receive 20% of net fees. Of the remaining 80%, 30% will be credited against the outstanding amount of the license fee and 50% shall go to Kaneva for fees due hereunder. In addition, you may include your game in Kaneva’s monthly multi-game plan offered to subscribers, in which case you will receive credit to your net fees generated based on monthly fees collected by Kaneva adjusted to reflect your pro-rata portion based on usage of your game compared to usage of all games by unlimited monthly subscribers

Cool! This looks great. I hope that it is as good as it looks and sounds!

If nothing else I really think this will spark some innovation in the genre

---

• Distribution. All listing of your games based on the Kaneva Software will be through Kaneva.com. As part of the License and Monthly User Fees specified below, Kaneva will host games using Kaneva Software on servers controlled by Kaneva. Games will be listed on and linked from Kaneva.com. You may distribute the Kaneva Game Engine only to end users through Kaneva.com as part of online enabled games developed, owned or licensed by you.

---

So does this mean if you were to create an MMORPG that Kaneva would be hosting and paying for the servers?

---

Originally posted by avatar6572

So does this mean if you were to create an MMORPG that Kaneva would be hosting and paying for the servers?

---

this engine WOULD be great, if there wasnt huge flaws in everything about it

I know they say its in beta, but I have created 4 new game projects now, and run into the same problem every time. Once you create a game, add a zone, and import objects, everything seems to run fine. Once you save your game, and your zone, then close Kaneva, its game over. You can never load up the game successfully again, it just wont let you. Every object you had, is now "not found" and will not display in the rendering. Nothing works once you close/reload your game project. Kind of useless, dont you think? Create your entire game in 1 sitting... or its all trash... thats really fun by my book.

That is really strange.  Currently there are a number of people that are using the platform and are actually hosting games that I have personally logged into.  Post your issue on http://www.kaneva.com/create/forumsCreate.aspx?subtab=dev and see if anyone else had this issue.  There are also working game examples in http://www.kaneva.com/community/GregsKanevaHelpZone.channel.

Hope this helps.

Can someone please post a link, to a non flawed 3ds max plugin.

I cannot export my models to kaneva...If there is no link can somone host the file? and then post the link...